[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Moved Back to Germany in the World War Years

[Helen Gillespie]

Chris et al,
 
Probably the simple fact of the matter is that, by the end of the war - from Jan 45 anyway - the Russians were advancing and all those Wolhynians resettled in Warthegau were trying desperately to escape.  As were any other German speaking residents from different areas from which the German Army was retreating.  The tide had turned in Europe.
 
Not a formal relocation plan - the Eastern Front was closing in on them and the German Army was moving right along side the fleeing civilians (my Mom and her family were there) one lane for military vehicles and troops and the other  -if there was one - for whatever means the civilians had - sleighs (it was Jan), wagons, pushcarts, baby carriages, and on foot. Sometimes they just travelled in the fields along side the road.

 
Not that this is a terrific site, but here is a timeline of the Russian advance on Germany shows and shows just how many evacuees there were.
 
http://www.theeasternfront.co.uk/timeline1945.htm  (check the 8th of May 1945)
 
Evacuation of East Prussia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_of_East_Prussia
 
Operation Hannibal was the German sea evacuation - where between 800,000 - 900,000 refugees and 350,000 soldier flee the east across the Baltic Sea to Germany and German-occupied Denmark.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hannibal 
Some estimates state almost 9,400 people were killed in the sinking of the Wilhelm Gusloff - most were women, children, the aged and wounded.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Gustloff_%28ship%29

 

I'm amazed how much stuff there is on the Web on this subject.



 
The civilians and the military alike feared the retribution of the Russians. (My mother`s family - all girls - and little children were very lucky to have made it across the Oder at Frankfurt in late Jan. 1945. Some waited too long to leave or were stranded and were unable to leave til after the end. Many just didn't survive the trek.  The winter of 1944-45 was one of the coldest on record for Europe.

 
Even before the war ended, Germans in Germany proper were forced to take in these refugees whether they liked it or not and whether they had room or not. Sometimes the buildings had been condemned.  There was just not enough housing for all the incoming refugees.

 
Helen

---------------------------------


The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
--Herbert Spencer

--- On Tue, 5/22/12, Christopher Menke <chrismenke at hotmail.com> wrote:


From: Christopher Menke <chrismenke at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Moved Back to Germany in the World War Years
To: "SGGEE List" <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 11:45 PM



In doing my family research I have noticed an intriguing fact. A numbers of my great-grandfather's cousins who did not go to Volhynia, but stayed in West Prussia (Kulm/Graudenz area) went back to Germany during the war years. A good number, more than coincidental I believe, settled in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). 
Is it possible that: 
A) They went there as part of a relocation plan by the governments?
B) More interesting...is it possible they went there because after 7 or so generations in West Prussia that part of Germany was still remembered as the "ancestral homeland"? 

Chris Menke

Manke/Menke - West Prussia, Volhynia, North Dakota (Lower Saxony?)
Brandt - West Prussia
Schroeder - West Prussia
Schappert - Galicia


                           
 
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